Man crushed at waste disposal site
21/04/2010
A waste disposal company has been fined £280,000 after a member of the public was crushed to death at its site in Berkshire.
Biffa Waste Services admitted breaching health and safety laws at West Berkshire Magistrates' Court.
The court heard Dennis Krauesslar was killed when a motorised loading shovel struck him in September 2007 at the waste disposal site in Newbury. The device was used to flatten and transport the waste away from the tipping area.
Mr Krauesslar was tipping his garden waste into a covered pit when the bucket crushed him.
The prosecution followed a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation and the Civic Amenity site where the accident happened is now closed.
At the hearing the company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 by failing to ensure that the garden waste tipping area was safe for members of the public to use.
The company also pleaded guilty to contravening Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 by failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the garden waste tipping area of the site to ensure people other than employees were suitably protected.
At Reading Crown Court it was fined £280,000 and ordered to pay costs of £54,906.
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